A year ago, a mutated branch was noticed on the variegated ‘Duet’ beautyberry (Callicarpa dichotoma ‘Duet’, below). While reversion to the green leaf of the typical white berried beautyberry would be expected, this branch exhibited a muted yellow-green center to its green bordered leaf. I pledged to watch to see if the variegation returned this…

In early autumn, deer eaten hostas are far more problematic than damage done by the extended, late summer drought. Just before the first of two major rainfalls, I resisted the urge to break out the hoses, so only a few new plantings were watered through a summer when there were only a few insignificant showers….

A few weeks ago, I marveled that the castor bean had topped the tip of the greenhouse, just over ten feet tall, I guessed. Today, the single trunk and huge leaves stand at least another four feet taller, rising far above the garden, though still dwarfed by a huge beech at the garden’s border. The…

On this last day of September, few flowers are seen along this climb up the mountainside that leads to a short stretch of the Appalachian Trail that Barbara and I are hiking today. A few asters and fewer phlox are seen, but near the peak the common witch hazels (Hamamelis virginiana, below) are beginning their…

I must put a stop to this disturbing trend. One of the oldest (and neglected) areas in the garden was recently chopped out to make room for workers to construct a sunroom in place of our shabby deck. A treasured ‘Moonrise’ Japanese maple and several unusual plants have gone in (with room to spare for…

I must be more careful. Always, I am full steam ahead, and while dividing, then chopping back an overly exuberant Red Hot Poker (Kniphofia), I chopped into my hand with the pruners, opening a substantial wound that you need not see evidence of. Barbara was horrified, and insisted that a rush to the emergency room…

Are more blackberry lilies (Iris domestica, once classified as Belamcanda chinensis, below) needed? Eighteen of this past spring’s seedlings reside in four inch pots at the edge of the summerhouse where they are sheltered from the afternoon sun, but they get the full benefit of any rainfall. All have made it through our extended summer…

Undoubtedly, the most splendid tree in the garden is one I rarely mention or photograph. While most trees with pendulous branching are modest in size, the weeping beech (Fagus sylvatica ‘Pendula’, below) is enormous, covering a wide swath along the northern border. I was, unfortunately, short sighted in planting fringetrees (Chionanthus virginicus), a redbud (Cercis…

First, I am not anxious for the weather to turn cold. I’ll gladly suffer through the high nineties rather than the chill of winter, but beyond the cold I prefer the fullness of the garden today rather than the comparative emptiness of the winter months. Funny, every year I wander the garden in February trying…

The globosa spruce (Picea pungens ‘Glauca Globosa’) and boxwood (Buxus sempervirens) filled the small area beside the older, circular patio after ten years. In the next twenty, both grew to obstruct the patio and path to the rear deck. Not that it matters at this point, but this is another of many examples of plants…

Why would this pendulous branched Chinese dogwood (Cornus kousa ‘Elizabeth Lustgarten’, below) flower in the heat of late summer? In fact, early September is the start of meteorological autumn (and the gardener’s autumn, at least mine), but there’s no debating that our recent weeks have been very summer-like with temperatures in the upper nineties. Happily,…

Stand up straight, and mind your manners. Of course, my mother found these admonitions unnecessary when I was a perfectly behaved kid, but still I am reminded with each tree that I consider adding to this already overcrowded garden. I need well behaved trees that also stay narrow. In a small garden, or one already…